Youths attack government building in Athens

The Associated Press

Youths hurled rocks and oranges at a government building in central Athens Monday during a student protest to mark two years since the fatal police shooting of a teenage boy that sparked Greece's worst riots in decades.

Police closed roads and deployed several thousand officers around the city, but maintained a minimal presence at the site where some 1,500 students gathered outside Athens University's main buildings.

Protesting youths pelted police and a Finance Ministry building with rocks and oranges and smashed glass phone booths, but the violence only lasted a few minutes.

Several rallies are planned Monday to mark the death of 15-year-old Alexandros Grigoropoulos, shot by a policeman in the Exarchia district of the capital.

The civil servants' union was marking the event with a three-hour work stoppage in Athens, while demonstrations were also being held in the northern city of Thessaloniki. The marches in Athens were to culminate in a vigil Monday night at the site where the teenager was killed.

Limited violence broke out during the first anniversary of Grigoropoulos' death, with youths clashing with riot police in Athens.

Grigoropoulos' killing on Dec. 6, 2008, sparked the worst civil unrest Greece had seen in decades, with youths rampaging through cities almost nightly for two weeks, torching cars and buildings, smashing windows, looting stores and clashing with riot police.

In October, policeman Epaminondas Korkoneas was convicted of murder for the teenager's death, and was sentenced to life imprisonment. A second policeman, Vassilis Saraliotis, was convicted of complicity and sentenced to 10 years in prison.

Korkoneas had argued that Grigoropoulos was killed inadvertently by a ricochet when the policeman fired a warning shot following an earlier altercation with youths in the area.